Heart of the Sythe
by BlueDemonofFire
Summary: The school year has only just begun for team RWBY, and it's clear to all four that this is going to be more complicated than they thought. Who knew that shoving four very different people together and making them eat, sleep, and rely on eachother would be such a combination of intimidating, fun, and downright frustrating? Rating subject to change depending on where the story goes.
1. Chapter 1

RWBY Fic, Heart of the Sythe

Takes place after episode where Ruby gets the speech on leadership, focus on character development and team-building, will likely divert from canon, especially when it comes to when the cat gets out of the bag..and Blake will probably slap me for wording it like that.

Chapter One

Less than a week of classes, and Ruby felt she was completely out of her depth. A sort of oh-crap-what-am-I-supposed-to-do, only without frantic urgency or even a clear sense of what was wrong. If she had some idea what precisely made her feel like this, she could do something to fix or hide from it.

It wasn't the course work, they'd only just started their first term. The combat related courses were at the stage of getting a feel for each student's style and the barely formed team dynamics so future classes could be better organized to fit each student's talents and needs. The generalized non-combat courses had more freedom to challenge students intellectually more quickly. The pace of those were kind of fast, they'd already had a history test and two math quizzes, but nothing was outright over her head. It was just a question of how quickly she could understand concepts and memorize details in a variety of areas, and the results would probably help determine future course choices, though they probably wouldn't start having actual choices until their second or third year.

Surprisingly, it wasn't the social aspect that left her feeling like a fish out of water, either. The school seemed designed to make sure nobody felt alone unless they exerted plenty of effort to isolate themselves, and Ruby would bet money someone else trying to find some peace alone would 'accidentally' stumble to the same spot. It was like Beacon was filled with hidden cameras and had a section of their staff devoted to integrating as many people into as many groups, official and otherwise, as possible. Various social events constantly going on all over the place, some run by clubs and particularly enthusiastic students, others appearing because of faculty aid, made sure things always felt vibrant. Add in the fact that teams ate, slept, and at least for the first years went to class together, and you either grew some strong bonds, or at the very least learned how to cope with the clashing personalities. And oh good god, did Yang and Weiss clash like..well, fire and ice. At least Weiss was acting more friendly towards Ruby..though going from openly hostile to trying to make 'some' kind of working relationship was probably more out of resignation than anything Ruby had done so far.

No, what had Ruby feeling like a turtle being told to fly was the fact that despite the fact she was pushed forward by two years, she was now a team leader. She was, on paper at least, in charge of three other people, one of whom was her older sister. Honestly, she didn't even think about it until Weiss verbally tore her a new one after their first class with Professor Portman. She didn't think the whole team leader thing was something to take seriously for some reason. Maybe because it was thrown at her so suddenly, while she still hadn't quite digested the fact that she'd been pushed forward two years. Maybe because back at Signal, she tended to either follow someone else's lead or just fade in the background, and figured someone else would unofficially take over. Maybe she'd wake up and learn she hadn't actually gone through initiation yet.

But no, she was actually supposed to be the leader of team RWBY. The fact that the team essentially shared her name made things arguably worse. She didn't know how a leader was supposed to act, didn't know how to actually give orders. Okay, sure, she came up with the plan that killed the Nevermore during initiation, but that was an on-the-spot flash of insane brilliance! If she'd known it would have..okay, she would have done it anyway mostly because nobody else seemed to have any ideas other than keep shooting and hope the massive bird either gave up or died from a lucky shot. But still! Why put her in charge because she was the first one to come up with a plan?! Shouldn't there be more to a leader than that? As nice as it felt that Professor Ozpin had faith in her, he didn't really give her any ideas of what she 'should' do to really deserve to be called a leader.

So, in a desperate attempt to figure out what she 'should' be doing, she wrote a letter to her old crew at Signal filled with her worries and asking for anything that could help. Books with extraordinary leaders, books 'by' extraordinary leaders, books meant to inspire, whatever! At the very least, she needed an image in her head of what a leader was supposed to be if she was going to have any hope of not screwing up royally! Most of the hero stories she was familiar with involved someone dealing with evil on their own, wandering around aimlessly and improving the world a little whenever the opportunity arose. No one she could model herself after in her current circumstances.

The post office wouldn't be open until morning, so as she finished writing the letter, there wasn't really much she could do at the moment. Maybe work on some history homework. That should keep herself busy, and probably wouldn't bother Blake quietly reading on the other side of the room. Some small part of Ruby wanted to try sparking a conversation with her quiet teammate, but she'd learned over the course of the week that trying to talk for the sake of talking didn't hold much if any appeal for the raven haired bookworm. It's not like she could try talking to either of the others, they'd left the room.

Weiss said she had a "company matter to take care of" and walked off to make a call. Based on the barely withheld grimace, it wasn't a call she was pleased to be making. As much as Ruby wanted to ask and possibly learn more about her partner, she was more relieved that she was getting a break. While her highness stopped acting like Ruby's presence was toxic, she still was a perfectionist at heart and seemed to take it as a personal insult whenever the sisters messed around. If you weren't all business around her, then she wouldn't be happy with you, but at least she didn't feel as volatile as nitro glycerine anymore.

Ruby's brain was barely paying attention to the historical facts she was reading. Ugh, why did Oobleck start the class at chapter four again? She didn't catch the specifics of his distaste for the opening tenth of the textbook..mostly because Yang made a joke comparing him to a hamster on a sugar high. And remembering the joke just got her giggling again, which drew Blake's eyes away from whatever story she was engrossed in.

Ruby waved off the unasked question. "Sorry, just remembering something Yang said about Professor Oobleck."

Shrugging as her eyes went back to her book, Blake's voice sounded only vaguely interested. "Oh yeah, comparing him to a hyperactive rodent. Sorry, I can't see the connection."

Huh, guess Yang felt it was a gag worth repeating. "Really? Constant motor mouth? Dashing all over the place to burn off energy? Drinking that much coffee when he's already at the point of bouncing off the walls? Where's the disconnect?"

Shrugging, Blake turned the page, and now that Ruby bothered looking she seemed just a few pages away from finishing the remarkably thick paperback. She couldn't quite make out the title, but it seemed pretty well-worn, likely something Blake had read multiple times. "Probably the fact that hamsters aren't known for their attention spans, and outside of the occasional moment where metaphors got away from him, he seemed pretty focused. Physically all over the place, but verbally on target. Certainly better than Professor Portman's tangents at any rate."

Pleased to have something to do other than homework and stew in her own thoughts, Ruby eagerly replied, "Yeah, how can anyone manage to make a story involving a Deathstalker sound boring? It's a Deathstalker, an armored monster larger than a van!"

Blake let out a short breath from her nose, it was hard to tell if it was an amused or aggravated noise. Possibly both. "By bragging about a kill he made over a decade ago. Whatever his lesson plan was, assuming he had one, he lost track of it the moment he said the word Deathstalker and went down questionably-accurate memory lane."

Ruby let out a short giggle before asking, "Do you think it would have been better all around to hear Jaune talk about the one his team killed at initiation?"

Blake just made a short, uncommitted hum in response, and Ruby wouldn't call what followed a companionable silence. More like she couldn't think of what to say after that, and Blake didn't seem inclined to continue the conversation. Blake was hard to figure out, and surprisingly unpredictable. One minute, she'd go along with whatever Ruby and Yang wanted to do with a good deal of enthusiasm. The next, she'd retreat to her own world, relaxed and seemingly barely interested in her surroundings regardless of if she was engrossed in a book or not. The girl was a walking puzzle, and Ruby didn't know how to ask for the pieces.

Another few minutes of silence as Ruby went back to work, and Blake broke the silence again. "When should we expect Yang to come back?"

Since it was Thursday, Yang was probably off to make plans for Friday night. Usually she either scouted someone to date, or picked out a club or bar she could pop into, legally or otherwise. And that was assuming she didn't start feeling adventurous and try something new. "It could be anytime between nine to one."

Blake paused as she put the book back on the bookcase. "She left at seven..will that narrow down when she'll be back?"

That probably just meant Yang didn't have too much of an idea where to scout and was wandering aimlessly. "Nope."

Now the raven haired girl seemed either worried or confused, Ruby couldn't tell the difference. "And how often does she disappear in the middle of the night?"

"Thursdays and Fridays every week, with the occasional Saturday thrown in."

Now she was obviously confused. "Most people save the partying for the weekend, they don't start on Thursday."

"Yang isn't most people. So long as she's back before one, it's nothing to worry about."

* * *

It was a little past midnight when Yang came back, grinning widely. It wasn't a pleased I've-got-a-date grin, so it could mean anything. Hopefully it wasn't something experimental this time. Not that Yang was addicted to any drugs, just that every once in a while she would do pretty much anything in order to get an extra thrill for the week.

It sounded like Weiss was sitting up in her bed, and Ruby could 'hear' her heated glare through her whisper. "Just where were you?! We have a class at eight in the morning!"

Yang's smile turned into something more playful before she shut the door, cutting off all but the small, less annoying light that leaked from beneath the door. "So you stayed up waiting for me? How sweet!"

Before Weiss could finish forming her first word, Blake cut in, "Less talking, more getting to bed and sleeping. Talking can wait until tomorrow."

Part of Ruby couldn't help thinking that 'she' should have been the one to say something like that, not Blake. It felt like a leader thing to do. The other, less guilty-for-little-to-no-reason part of her mumbled, "It already 'is' tomorrow..the morning's going to suck, isn't it?"

If anyone answered, Ruby didn't hear them. She drifted off sleep at some unknowable point later, dreaming of protecting a poor village from monsters, and generally being an awesome hero. Childish dreams, nothing particularly worrying. If she was more aware during her dreams, she might have wondered why this time she was protecting a village full of fairies that looked like a worn down, dusty town from a cowboy flick. Normally, she fought monsters in an open field of some kind or another with no real detail. She'd also probably wonder why one of the monsters attacking the town was a six foot tall blue turtle with a pair of water cannons sticking out of its shell. Every other dream, it was a bunch of Grimm, mostly Beowolves with the occasional other beast mixed in. And strangest of all was the sound of another girl giggling in the distance. But it was a dream, things get weird in dreams, and frequently don't matter in the long run. Why else do we forget about them when we wake up?

* * *

Most Friday mornings in Ruby's life were dull, unmemorable affairs. Hear Yang's alarm clock for a few seconds, try to get an extra twenty minutes of sleep before her own went off, get the day started, and remember not to set her alarm for the next day. Really, the only reason she paid any more attention to Friday than Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday was because Saturday was next. As her sister's alarm went off, the generic and annoying klaxon doing what it was designed to with no sense of style to make it any different than any other digital alarm clock, Ruby could already tell this was going to be a memorable Friday. Not a pleasant kind of memorable either, unless she was in a particularly masochistic mood or that ominous feeling in her gut was..no, if it was the chicken she had last night, she'd probably feel some kind of stabbing or burning in her stomache, not this familiar chill in her insides. She typically only had this kind of chill on days where it felt like she had little to no luck at all.

Three minutes before her own alarm would go off, she remembered the letter she wrote last night, grabbed it at the spot she'd absently placed it on her bed when she'd finished it, folded it up and shoved it into an envelope, absently noting that Blake was already in her uniform and putting the various books and notebooks for the day's classes into her bag. Just how did Blake keep waking up so early without an alarm clock anyway? It was like she had an internal clock that said "your day begins right now" in her head.

Any further thoughts as her brain booted up screeched to a halt when she heard a short screech from the showers, followed by an enthusiastic yelp and a reflexive scream. This was soon followed by a barely dressed Pyrrha slamming the door open, panting, "Yang and Nora..wrestling over soap..need help before one of them actually gets hurt."

Any remaining drowsiness in Ruby's mind vanished the second she heard Yang might get hurt. Time slowed down as she threw her covers off and dashed to the showers. In hindsight, running into a room with wet tiles under semblance enhanced speed was probably a bad idea. Running into semi-playful wrestling that Pyrrha, a multiple time tournament champion, felt was too intense to break up alone because of the implication her tank of a sister could get legitimately hurt in some spirited rough housing but couldn't find it in her to worry when she'd stay out late doing whatever..that was just blind panic driven by "this is new" and the chill in her insides. So really, she deserved it when she lost her footing, sliding across the tiles the instant her foot entered the shower room. She deserved it when her flailing attempts to balance herself sent her other foot onto wet soap. So her falling painfully and awkwardly on top of Yang in her mindless charge to help was kind of deserved.

The good news? Neither was seriously hurt, and any weakening of her or Yang's aura would probably fix itself in around half an hour or so. The bad news? Nora was laughing uproariously, Blake was at the door with a full-body droop that seemed to say "oh dear, this is how we're starting our day", Ruby's alarm chose now to start blaring an eight bit rendition of "This Will Be the Day", and Yang was mumbling something about a license plate number. To add insult to injury, Pyrrha walked in and said, "Well..that's one way to break up a fight. Not quite what I was expecting, but surprisingly effective."

Nora eventually stopped laughing, about the same time Ruby and Yang untangled from one another. She then grabbed the bar of soap, walked to a shower stall that was currently in use, knocked in what sounded like a short bit of morse code, and tossed the soap above the door. Three seconds later, Ren's voice gave a barely-paying-attention "Thank you."

* * *

Author's note

When I first started this fic, it was December. I didn't know Monty Oum was in a coma in January. I was busy with five or six things at once, putting off some creative projects in favor of others or just trying to figure out where my life is going. Learned what happened on February 9, too late to even pay respects at his funeral. At the very least, I can put this fic as a priority project. This is the first story I've tried writing in years, the only other thing is a book attempt that's stalled out. Hopefully I can make it entertaining, and hopefully on the other side, Monty's looking at everyone's fanfics and fanart of his stuff, enjoying every bit of it.

I'm trying to go for an almost slice of life sort of thing with this story, looking at the interesting environment of what Beacon is, and seeing where that leads me. I've got some plans for the future, and certainly they'll have more to worry about than their grades before this is over, but the most important thing is building this ride, seeing where it leads, and most of all, having fun with it.

Constructive criticism is appreciated. Second chapter is in the works. I expect to be done with it some time next week.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

There was something to be said for the sterile life Weiss had lived for most of her life. While it tended to make the average day a dull blur with little to really feel proud of, at least one didn't have to deal with outright stupidity.

Before she'd managed to get her first cup of coffee..before she'd mustered the energy and awareness to get out of 'bed', her "leader" and her brute of a sister had managed to embarrass themselves. Weiss admittedly didn't know all the facts, but any story that begins with a fight over a bar of soap and ended with two girls tangled on the floor after a high speed collision wasn't worth learning in any detail.

As the third class of the day ended, Weiss put her books into her bag and gave herself a mental slap to the back of the head. Sure, the team she ended up in wasn't what she'd imagined, but that didn't mean she couldn't make the best of it. This was Beacon, the most prestigious Hunter academy in Remnant. Anyone who was accepted here and got through initiation had something worthwhile to bring to the table. Besides, part of the point behind Hunters and Huntresses was that they were elite warriors that could adapt to any situation and have more of an impact than a battalion of troops.

As if some higher deity read her thoughts and had a sick sense of humor, a loud clattering drew her attention to the unmistakable sight of Jaune tripping on the leg of a chair and all his school materials scattering from his hastily filled, unzippered backpack. Dear god, how did someone that clumsy get into Beacon? Why did he end up with Pyrrha, the shining example of what a Beacon student should be like? Unable to go around the fallen idiot in the narrow space between desks, Weiss could only watch as her preferred partner helped him put various pens, pencils, notebooks, and calculator back into his bag.

Years of self-analysis let her know the exact cocktail of feelings the sight highlighted. Jealousy of Jaune's luck, which she hoped would dissipate over time..either his luck or her jealousy, didn't matter, she just wasn't a fan of feeling jealous of others. Annoyance that she couldn't just bypass something she didn't even want to acknowledge. Sure, shimmying against either set of tables was an option, and might even give her an excuse to step on his hand or something, but that would mean giving others a decent hint of what she was feeling, which could lead to mockery, among other things. A surprising amount of exhaustion of dealing with people who weren't as easy to categorize as servants, merchants, her father, sister, or any of the company employees. The first week of classes hadn't even finished yet, and she was already feeling 'physically' fatigued of dealing with her peers? It's not like she could just go to her room and sleep it off, she shared her room with three other students!

Thankfully, once Jaune got out of her way, there were no other outright obstacles in her path. She could get to the locker room and switch uniforms for the final class of the week. Some people called it "gym" class, a term that didn't really work with Weiss. Sure, it required a good deal of athletic ability to excel in, but the word implied it was just to keep you in shape. Others called it Parceur de Combatte, and to a degree, that felt more accurate. A good deal of it involved quickly and efficiently going through various obstacle courses, and many of the best students of the class tended to move similar to a tracer (double check term), but again, it didn't feel accurate enough for Weiss's taste. The official name, "Simulated Navigation and Survival Training", just couldn't really grasp the nebulous class. It changed from teacher to teacher how it went, part of the very point was to be as unpredictable as possible and physically demanding!

Glancing behind her, her teammates all seemed to be preparing for their last class in their own little ways. Yang was cracking her knuckles, grinning widely enough that Weiss's cheeks hurt just looking at her. Blake did a momentary check to see how secure her bow was, tightened it, and began stretching her amrs while she walked. Ruby seemed somewhere between apprehensive and terrified, visibly mumbling various encouragements and platitudes to herself as she dug her scroll from her bag.

Turning on her own scroll and checking the map of Beacon, Weiss wasn't surprised to see there were multiple doors to the same room. And unfortunately, she recieved a message soon addressed from her next professor.

{To all ye young adventurous souls,

You have each been assigned different starting locations, where suggested clothes have been prepared for you in lockers with your randomly assigned number are. Extra credit for those who actually wear them. The only criteria for failure is not arriving to the room on time.

We are going to have such fun together.

Your Dungeon Master,

Professor Viridian}

Oh dear..of all the classes to have someone eccentric in charge. It was like putting an artist in charge of decorations, it made things all the more unpredictable, and Weiss could use some more predictability around here. Two floors down, first hallway to the right. Changing room was the second one. Why was there a peculiar looking plastic gun taped over the first door, and a stuffed beatle over the other? Blake seemed to be going to the one with a gun, and frankly that was the only member of her team she could see. The others must have been sent to one of the different entrances. Again, kind of peculiar. Why separate the team for this class when absolutely everything else so far was a team experience?

Whatever, she just wanted to get this over with and hopefully find some way to relax. Assuming one 'could' get an athletics class that lasted an hour and ten minutes 'over with'. Opening the locker assigned to her, three fifty one, she took one look at what she was supposed to put on and cringed. This had to be some kind of mistake.

Taking the offending garment out, she suddenly wished she had Yang's fire semblance. Then she could burn this pink tutu and forget it ever existed. It wasn't even her size, she'd have to shrink by a foot and a half in order to fit in this thi -

Her internal rant was cut off by what sounded like a horn blowing, if the horn was meant to sound like a lion with laryngitis. Almost absently, she checked the time. Huh, she could have sworn she had a good five minutes before class when she came in here. Either she'd been staring at the..abomination in her locker longer than she thought, or her scroll's clock was being remotely messed with. Both were just as likely.

A speaker in the wall let out a few taps, like someone was testing if their microphone worked, before Professor Viridian decided to start speaking. His voice almost sounded like what you'd expect to hear in a documentary. "Ah, first years. So cocksure, so full of potential, with so many different experiences under their belts."

His voice suddenly shifted to something more frightening as he began what could only be described as a gleeful rant. "Well you'd better check your belts if you've got 'em, 'cause I'm gonna knock the pants off you! Ihehehehehehoaw! I've spent all week coming up with this dungeon, tested it on some masochistic volunteers, and I must say, I almost feel guilty throwing something 'this' brutal at you in our first time together! Don't feel too bad if you can't make it to the end, three quarters of the second years couldn't! As hilarious as it was to watch them scramble all over the place, the highlight reel for you guys will probably be even better!"

Weiss felt her shoulders slumping with every word. Great, success was not expected, and their teacher would be recording how they all failed. Well, there was nothing she could do about it but go as far as she could and hope to retain some dignity. In the five or so seconds of creepy giggles, she decided to see if she was the only one given something she couldn't possibly wear.

Around a fourth of the other students had put on whatever clothes they'd been given. Some strange suit that looked like an oversized apple, what looked like a chain-mail bikini, a tuxedo..there was absolutely no pattern at all. A few students had the sense to put clothes of their own in their bags, and one or two had simply changed their shoes to something more suited for running. In hindsight, Weiss should have thought of that herself. Silly her, she'd hoped their teacher would let them change into their battle outfits, or put them in uniform track suits or something.

Once Viridian stopped his creepy giggling, he spoke seriously for the first time. "Your objectives are as follows. First, reunite with your team. Second, find your way to one of the exits. You will be timed. If you find an exit before you find your team, double back and find your team or I will shut that exit off. If you fall into certain traps, you will be removed from the dungeon, thoroughly mocked, and if your team wasn't there to see it they will be notified that they don't need to find you to leave. The time limit is fifty minutes. If you're still inside and conscious when time is up, you will be retrieved."

A buzzing noise filled the air in the middle of the last sentence, a hidden compartment of the locker releasing a multitude of bugs Weiss didn't bother trying to identify swarming out as he finished. As the locker room devolved into a screaming mob frantically trying to find an escape from the bugs coming from seemingly everywhere, Viridian's last words were barely audible. "As Dungeon Master of Beacon Academy, I hereby say get a move on."

* * *

Twenty four minutes, forty three seconds. That's how long it took for Weiss to be knocked unconscious. On one hand, she did better than over half the class. On the other, she was eliminated before the rest of the team, and the way she was knocked unconscious felt rather humbling.

The first and most obvious danger was the bug swarm, which had followed her group of students for a good while, and occasionally popped up whenever any student stayed still for longer than two minutes. Weiss still didn't know what they were, she wasn't an expert when it came to flying insects. Just that they somehow managed to put people to sleep without stinging or biting anyone. Possibly during the weekend, when she wasn't studying, doing homework, or trying to relax, she'd try to find out just what they were. All she needed to know was they looked like some kind of beetle, flew in swarms, and Professor Viridian had some method, either his semblance or some trick she couldn't think of, to make them go wherever he pleased.

One of the other common ways people we knocked out were guns hidden all over the place. Each of the colorful, plastic monsters fired a colorful liquid. It wasn't paint..possibly a dye? It was hard to tell if all they did was stain cloth or had some other effect, Weiss was lucky to avoid any hits and didn't see anyone collapse or do anything more than make a shocked yelp if they were hit. So really, it wasn't the guns all over the place that took people out, but the things people did to try avoiding getting shot. Running without looking carefully enough and stepping onto a trap door. Dodging into subtly marked hallways with traps meant to bludgeon people into unconsciousness. Hell, the most horrifying sight was probably seeing some panting guy lean against a wall to rest, mumbling that he couldn't believe he made it through the previous hallway untouched, metal clamps coming out of that wall to capture him, and the whole thing spinning as he screamed. She couldn't even tell that wall could spin around! Did that sadistic teacher grab some people who weren't actually part of the class just to add dramatic effect and scare the crap out of people?! Whatever other dangers there were, Weiss didn't see well enough to confirm. She just treated the entire environment as hostile, not even trusting the ground beneath her feet, and all around becoming a nervous mess. In hindsight, it was a little embarrassing that she became that scared of a non-lethal environment, but..a wall grabbed someone, and demonic little insects kept coming out of nowhere if you stopped moving for too long! Who wouldn't be knocked out of their equilibrium?!

Yang. Xiao. Long. She enjoyed the hell out of the class, and at one point compared it to a haunted house. She'd put on some blue outfit that Weiss couldn't identify, at one point saying "look Ruby, I'm a blond Chun Li", whatever that was supposed to mean, and frequently suggested going into areas filled, absolutely filled with traps. After the second time, it was clear Yang 'knew' she was sending the team into the worst possible environments and having fun with the resulting chaos. She was arguably a bigger enemy than whatever Professor Viridian could come up with.

Ruby was more of a bundle of nerves than Weiss, jumping at every little noise, from the legitimate sounds of someone just around the corner making shocked noises, to randomly generated sound effects that occasionally came from the speakers, and even the moments where Yang did something as stupid as yelling "boo" in her ear. At around the twenty-four minute mark, Ruby'd gotten so tired after using her semblence to get away from every perceived threat that she couldn't walk anymore. So Yang decided to carry Ruby, cracking more jokes..and Weiss felt her patience finally snap.

She didn't remember exactly what she said, or really the chain of events themselves. So when she woke up in a room full of everyone else who had been eliminated, she didn't really know what to think or feel. Relief that she wasn't in that madhouse anymore. Surprise that she had been eliminated without noticing. Outright shock that Pyrrha was down here with her, and was the only member of team JNPR to be eliminated.

There wasn't much to be said about the room. It was a dull looking place with gray stone walls, the mortar holding them together was dyed to look like dried blood. A large flat screen monitor was set up along a bunch of bars, and behind the bars were the occasional fake skeleton dressed in torn up rags in various positions. The most easily visible one was just to the right of the monitor, leaning against a wall, one hand in a two fingered salute, the other reaching to the rear of his pelvis, possibly to scratch an itch. Yes, nothing much to say about the room other than "okay, the professor is very theatrical" and "I am probably going to get used to seeing this room in this school year". On the opposite side of the room to the monitor, rows of benches were set up, each row higher than the last, and it looked like there were enough seats for about two hundred and sixteen students. Strange, since the entire freshman class was only one hundred and thirty six strong.

Until Professor Viridian started showing his "highlight reel" at the half hour mark, the only pass times were awkwardly talking to the other students about the booby trapped labyrinth, keeping oneself occupied with their own thoughts, and watching unconscious students get seemly float down from various holes in the ceiling of the room they were in. It was kind of disturbing to see that swarms of whatever these were could be strong enough to carry people regardless of weight. And every time a fresh body came down, at least one relative newcomer would scream or otherwise panic until they learned the bugs weren't out to get them anymore.

Then the highlight reel started, with Professor Viridian's commentary coming from the speakers. He alternated between praising people's creativity in the heat of the moment to pointing out their mistakes with varying levels of levity. Weiss couldn't help wondering why someone who certainly sounded like he enjoyed the spotlight wouldn't show his face to the majority of the class.

"Welcome, welcome. Sorry for the wait, I just wanted to be sure there'd be enough of an audience so plenty of people could learn from one anthers mistakes. Don't feel too bad about not making it to the end, very few first years ever do for a multitude of reasons. Sometimes it's because whatever Dungeon Masters or whatever they called themselves in your previous schools didn't have a certain je ne sais quoi. Perhaps you had a bad run of luck and didn't have the reflexes or right habits to make up for it. Hell, it could be anything. So don't feel too bad when people see how you fell, this is all a learning experience. Better to trip over yourself in an insane environment when the risk is humiliation and unconsciousness than when it could be permanent injury or death."

Most of the footage wasn't particularly interesting to Weiss. Huh, so someone tried to get out of the locker room the same way they entered and was taken out. Was kind of expecting that from Jaune, not someone she couldn't name off the top of her head. Oh, so the more dangerous hallways had darker walls, funny how she didn't really register that in the heat of the moment. Ah, so after getting soaked by enough of those colorful liquids, the bugs swarmed at you regardless. Good thing she managed to avoid getting hit at all. What was even more strange was that somehow, Weiss was getting drowsy watching a lot of what happened. Possibly because a lot of the mistakes made were fairly similar and things that she probably would never do. Run away blindly from one threat directly into another, trying to find a corner to hide or rest..

"And here we have the champ! You know her, you possibly have a crush on her..I know I do, let's hear it for Pyrrha Nikos."

That prompted some clapping, a few half-hearted cheers, pretty much everyone including Weiss taking a moment to at least glance at Pyyrha. She had possibly one of the most awkward smiles ever to grace her face as she mumbled hello, possibly because she was completely unused to this particular kind of attention.

"Now, as you can see here, she has a very erratic teammate. Fun to be around, especially at parties, but not the best person to have in an exercise like this. No matter how keen your eye is for danger, when you see a friend you probably aren't and really shouldn't have to consider them jsut as dangerous as your surroundings."

Nora apparently let herself get soaked in whatever was coming out of those guns..even drinking some of the stuff. That, of course, brought the swarms of bugs after her, and she was ridiculously gleeful as they chased her. She ran into Pyrrha along the way..physically running into her, knocking the red haired amazon to the ground, and while Nora had an apologetic look on her face, she didn't even slow down and try to save her teammate. The bugs overtook Pyrrha while she was still on her knees. What really baffled Weiss was that somehow, Nora wasn't down here as well.

"Oh dear, not much she could have done there. At best, she'll just have to tell her mate there to scale back the fun 'just' enough to prevent screwing other people over. Which leads perfectly to our next victim, Weiss Schnee. Her teammate here, well, she's kind of a troll. Part of how she has fun is at the expense of others. Possibly caused by how cutely her little sister acts when scared out of her wits. Still, got to give her credit for carrying her exhausted sister. At this point, poor Weiss has gotten sick and tired of blondie here sending them in circles, making no progress, and just purposely going through the path of most resistance for laughs. It's the sort of clash of personalities that might occur between Pyrrha and her partner. One takes things seriously, possibly too much. The other is possibly going to contribute to you hating this class since they're having way too much fun while you're being tortured. Don't take it personally, though. This is probably the only class you'll have that will never be graded. There's no way 'to' grade what goes on here. You either enjoy it, or make it into a learning experience and hope that the world out there doesn't throw anything too creative at you."

Midway through his sentence, Weiss noticed a large group of newcomers. About twelve, with Ruby, Yang, and Nora among them.

"Ah, and it appears some of you have finally run into the robotic guardians at the halfway point near the exits. I know, little unfair to throw something like that at you when you're unarmed, but hey, you never know what I'll throw at you. Next time, the big surprise might not be colorful robots firing gas pellets at you. For all you know, next time I will put you in a barn, and have you milk cows that actually have acid instead of milk! That is, assuming that genetics expert wasn't 'lying' to me last weekend..ah well, got plenty of other ideas if that one doesn't fall through. Anyway, let's see, what's worth showing on the highlight reel now..or am I going to start doing some reruns already in this show?"

* * *

Dinner was..well, Weiss was somehow expecting it to be a somber affair after the entire freshman class failed to get through that maze Professor Viridian set up. It was a stark reminder that while they had managed to be accepted into Beacon, they were still freshman in a four year school designed to forge them into even greater warriors. However, the reactions at the table weren't anything like she expected.

She'd expected Pyrrha to be completely unfamiliar with failure, perhaps be angry that she was eliminated because of her own teammate. Instead, the first thing she said to Nora was, "So..just what exactly was the liquid the water guns fired, anyway?"

Nora took a second to lick her lips as if to remind herself of the taste and said, "Some lemonade, apple and orange juice, milk, and I'm not sure what else. Kind of burned my throat when it went down, but nothing too painful."

Yang blinked a moment in surprise before slapping herself over the head. "Wait, Viridian was shooting alcoholic drinks at us? Crap, I should have tried some of that!"

Ruby looked like she still hadn't recovered from pushing herself so hard out of fear. Her body was slumped and her arms were a little shakey as she cut the meat on her plate. "Probably not a good idea, you'd have to get whatever you didn't drink out of your hair."

That made Yang outright grimace. "Oh yeah, probably the only part of that whole thing that legitimately scared me. Don't get me wrong, it was damn fun, but a lot of haunted houses at least try to make some fake blood and darker lights to make you feel like you're in a horror movie. This..this didn't feel like he was going for a horror vibe. The yellow and occasionally red brick walls with that bright lighting? Little more cheery than I was expecting. And the robots he pulled out at the halfway point? I could swear I saw something like them in a video game once."

The fact that everyone else laughed a little was just another sign of how little Weiss had in common with her peers. There'd been way too many moments like this in the week for her tastes. It wasn't that she felt 'left out', no, just..she couldn't really think of anything to add, and no justification to shut this line of conversation down. She wasn't sure she'd ever get used to this feeling.

Jaune recovered from his restrained laughter first. "They kind of looked like robots out of Sonic the Hedgehog..if Moto Bugs had grapple guns and Buzz Bombers shot some kind of gas. Might have just imagined that, though. I was taken out 'seconds' after seeing those things."

There was an almost whimsical look on Ren's face. "Definitely game inspired. Certainly explains the Kaizo trap. Thought I was at an exit, the flashing red exit sign above the door, touched the handle, and next thing I know I'm waking up in that weird prison set-up."

While Blake didn't seem as 'in' on the conversation as the others, she could at least hold her own. "Not sure what a 'kaizo' trap is, but yeah, we saw. Congratulations on being the only freshman to get anywhere near that close to the end, by the way."

Ren bowed, or what passed for a bow when you're sitting down. "Thanks."

Ruby was at least polite enough to answer Blake's unasked question. "A Kaizo trap is basically a cheap trick in video games, something that you aren't going to be able to avoid unless you already know it's coming. Usually at the point where you're relaxing, going 'yeah, I got through', and suddenly oops, you failed. I can barely stand it when I've got multiple chances in a game, but only one chance to succeed? Vicious..just how long do we have to stay at Beacon before we can pull off what that second year team did? You know, get to the end with our full team?"

Well, this felt like the best moment to add to the conversation Weiss was going to get. "Assuming team CFVY actually were sophomores and not older, then it's vaguely possible by next year. It's equally possible that even if they were, Professor Viridian might have coached them just so he could play that music in the background."

Whatever she was expecting as a response, it wasn't Nora to slap the table and make short, full-belly laugh. "Don't care, that was awesome!"

She then began to hum the tune, swinging her knife around like she was conducting an orchestra. Where Jaune shifted away from her, mumbling, "Why couldn't she have used a spoon?", and Pyrrha had an awkward smile that seemed to say "Please don't tell me this is a docile as she gets.", Ren just added his whistling to the mix between mouthfuls of food. Again, not what Wiess was expecting, and somehow unnerving. Sure, she knew the pair were friends before they'd even gotten to Beacon, but..well, actually, Weiss wasn't sure what the 'but' to that was. Whenever she saw or heard about the two interacting, her usual ability to analyze herself went out the window.

Whatever else was said during dinner, the silver haired heiress didn't really register. She just let herself do into an old childhood habit of shutting off the rest of the world, focusing only on finishing her meal, and hoping that tomorrow, that small sense that she didn't belong here would shrink instead of grow like it had from the moment she first woke up to a whistle blowing in her ear.

* * *

Author's Note

I can't tell how much of this chapter feels awkward to me because Weiss is supposed to feel awkward at this point, and how much feels awkward because of the execution. Ah well, at least I manged to figure out line breaks on , I'll get around to fixing chapter 1 soon.

The class, well, I kind of wanted something that was similar to the Danger Room from X-Men, but without the hard light holographs. So Viridian, named after a town in Pokemon Red/Blue/Yellow, and who doesn't have a first name yet, was born. I was kind of iffy about throwing in an original character into this fic, especially since RWBY has loads of characters already, but there are definitely more teachers at Beacon than the three we've seen on screen so far, and I just can't see Glynda pulling off the sort of flair this kind of class needed. We'll see how many other teachers I feel the need to create as this story moves along, and hopefully none of the characters I introduce in this story will be annoying or steal the spotlight from the main cast.

As a side note, the tune Nora was humming and Ren joined in with? Two Steps from Hell To Glory. Not really sure there 'is' a way to include music into a fanfic if it doesn't have lyrics, but I get the feeling she'd enjoy the band.

Anyway, next chapter is the next day, from Blake's perspective. How will our reclusive book worm deal with her first weekend at Beacon? Especially since she's going to be dealing with a pair of teammates who feel like fish out of water, and a partner who's going off on her own to blow off steam, among other things.


	3. Chapter 3

Author's Note: Well, this took a hell of a lot longer than it should have to finish, but frankly, it can be a little distracting when you're working your ass off and worrying where you're going to live for a decent portion of a year. Hopefully I won't have another pause in updates this long. And maybe at some point I'll do some edits to the first two chapters to make it fit the direction my head wants this story to go.

Chapter 3

The first thing Blake noticed in the morning was the lack of Yang's snoring. On one hand, it was probably the most restful sleep she'd had all week. On the other, it felt strange that her partner disappeared for a ridiculous amount of time with little more than a "be seein' ya". She wasn't sure what she was expecting from a partner, but Yang was..surprisingly hard to figure. Laid back and relaxed on a day to day basis, but she went to battle with a pair of shotgun gauntlets, which implied a hell of a lot more aggression than she showed outside of battle.

Of course, that might have more to do with the fact that most people she met were so easy to categorize. Racist bigot, fresh recruit, angry veteran, teacher, shop keeper, flirty guy, jealous girl. Occasionally, those last two were switched. Far too many people she knew were predictable, easy to read and understand better than she'd care to. Up until she arrived at Beacon, the only person left outside of fiction that seemed too complicated to mentally sort around was Adam, and she'd severed that bond rather effectively. Of course, the fact that she was an extreme introvert probably had a major hand in her isolation. It's hard to see the layers of other people when you don't interact with them that often. And pretty much everyone in Beacon was a puzzle to fully understand. It was actually quite the interesting mental exercise trying to figure out as much as she could about everyone around her while keeping a nice, safe distance.

In the corner of her eye, she noticed her scroll flashing silently, indicating she'd recieved a few messages. Most likely spam from the school trying to convince her to join one of the many clubs. Strange how she received more of those messages than any of the other members of the team. Whatever, she'd probably delete them without even looking. She already had a plan for the day. Shower, read, eat lunch, read, eat dinner, read, go to bed. Possibly throw in some random exercises, and at some point this weekend she should probably take some time for her weapon as well. Both regular maintenance and just doing some katas with it..assuming kata was the appropriate word to use when the routines weren't actually anything she was taught. It was mostly just a series of linked-together movements she came up with on her own that looked similar to some of the repetitive things she'd seen martial artists do.

Before she even bothered grabbing her towel and soap to really start her day, she took a moment to consider which book to pull out of the shelf. Always a hard decision. Should she begin a new series that seemed interesting, or go back to an old favorite? Of course, despite how many books she brought with her, she'd probably run out of new material before the school year ended. Kind of a depressing reason for that choice to become easier, but based on her usual reading speed and the likely delays caused by school work, it shouldn't be an issue for around three months. She'd deal with it when it came to that, probably by checking the school's library or something.

Just as she picked which book to go through next, her ears caught the unmistakable sound of running water..shit. Nobody went to the showers this early in the day when they actually had 'classes' to go to, why would someone be in there before six in the morning on a Saturday?! Maybe she should start showering at night..no, someone might ask why she went from morning to night showers, and the entire point of waking up this early was to 'avoid' questions. Since she wasn't going to take the risk of whoever else was in the shower noticing her 'extra' pair of ears, she wasn't going to bother with a shower at all today..it's not like anyone around here would notice a difference. Humans weren't nearly as good with their noses as faunus anyway.

* * *

Weiss was the first of her roommates to wake up, around nine. Angling her book so she could watch without looking creepy, Blake couldn't help being facinated. She knew it was 'wrong' to look at someone else like some exotic animal, she'd be pretty pissed if someone else did the same to 'her', but it was hard not to. 'This' was the heiress of the Schnee Dust Company? This cute, if at times spoiled, girl who at a glance seemed as fragile as a glass statue?

For the longest time, she bought into the White Fang's image of what the Schnees were like. Sadistic slave-drivers that treated even their fellow humans as low-life peasants born to serve them at best. And faunus? Treating them like barely tolerated pests that needed to be put down, and the only reason things weren't worse was because the Schnees always followed the letter of the law, though they had ways to bend it in their favor. It's not like she saw any evidence to the contrary before now.

Now that she was in the same dorm room as Weiss, Blake couldn't tell if fate had a sense of humor or was just a sadistic bitch. The similarities between the two of them were..disconcerting.

The biggest similarity so far was that both tended to keep to themselves when they weren't working. Though Weiss seemed to like giving herself more work to do, such as turning a three hundred word essay based on something in the textbook into a three or four page research paper with an extra pair of sources. Her surprise that she was the only one to go that far, while amusing, was probably the most blatant sign of what kind of life Weiss had led before she arrived at Beacon. While Blake had never gone through the sort of scrutiny that Weiss must have, over the years she'd become rather..pragmatic. And a good deal of that pragmatism required she be her own harshest critic, because frankly she was the most reliable person she knew at this point.

All the other things she'd noticed were barely important things. They both tended to go through showers quickly, considered Yang's singing and taste of music in general to be borderline auditory rape, and they preferred to be early when they had to be somewhere. She didn't bother trying to compare her own past and reasonings with why she thought the heiress did the same with things that petty. There were more important questions, and not nearly enough answers.

What was it that made her go from an adorable young woman that seemed to hold her pillow like a teddy-bear to a constantly tense girl that seemed genuinely confused that others weren't conditioned to go the extra mile? And why was the change so easy to see that you could literally time it? There's the yawn, the arm stretch, blinking several times to adjust to the light..and with each blink, her almost trademark, permanent scowl became more prominent. Some small part of Blake wondered if her own start-up of each day was just as visible and drastic.

Weiss gave a quick glare to Yang's bed, mumbling under her breath, "Of course, she didn't come back last night at all..I don't know if I should feel sorry for whoever she slept with, or just disgusted."

It was more out of a sense of obligation than anything else that prompted Blake to reply, "Being out all night doesn't automatically mean Yang's sleeping around."

Based on the light blush and the full-body twitch, the silver haired girl didn't expect anyone to hear her. Huh. Didn't think of her as the type to talk to herself. It didn't take long for her to recover enough to say heatedly, "Well, why else would she be out all night?!"

Blake could think of several dozen reasons. However, most of them involved having a rather..loose interpretation of the law. And since she was trying to defend the honor of someone she'd known for around a week, throwing some of her more wild guesses into the air would probably be counter-productive. "I'd prefer to have more facts before jumping to any conclusions. Maybe Yang slept with a relative in town. Maybe she missed the last shuttle back to Beacon and had to go to a hotel. There are plenty of possibilities."

Getting out of bed and grabbing her various toiletries, Weiss dismissively growled, "Yang didn't tell us what she was doing, and she didn't come back last night. And I have enough problems with her without adding 'disappears on a whim' to the list."

As the door shut behind the heiress, Blake felt her grip on her book tighten a little. On one hand, what Weiss said wasn't 'unreasonable'. It was common courtesy to tell your roommates when you expect to return, even if you didn't want to say where you were going. Hell, she'd been concerned enough about Yang's disappearance on Thursday to ask Ruby about it, and something just didn't feel right that her own 'sister' seemed to have no idea where she was or what she was doing, and was very used to not knowing. On the other, Weiss seemed seemed a little too quick to judge other people. Really, acusing her of being a slut right off the bat? It was almost enough to make Blake want to..wait, no, that would have been something the old White Fang Blake would have done. She shouldnt' go into the slippery slope of beating someone to a pulp in an allyway in an attempt to open their eyes, at best it just made people do the right thing for the wrong reasons.

Returning to her book, the raven haired girl entered the fictional realm again, letting the worries of the outside world fade away.

* * *

It wasn't until lunch, around one in the afternoon, that Yang showed up. Her face was surprisingly hard to read. Sort of a combination of pleased with herself, and disappointed either at what she left or that she had to leave it. Hard to tell. The fact that she came to the cafeteria with her gauntlets on was somehow more worrying. Either she was the type who felt naked when unarmed, which would indicate a rather rough past, or she'd been too lazy to take them off when she got back. Lazy felt more likely, but again, Blake didn't know her that well. And based on the combined scents of some very cheap brands of alchohal, sweat, burnt dust, and blood on her, she'd certainly gotten some use from them last night. Hard to tell if she fought in a bar or just clashed with a more pathetic class of hobos than Blake was familiar with. No scents that could be attributed to sex, though, so that certainly threw Weiss's idea out the window, but Blake somehow doubted that was admissible evidence to the heiress.

Weiss didn't seem to notice or care about the fact Yang was armed in the school cafeteria. "Just where were you? 'Again'?"

The blond's smile took a more playful air. "Aw, worried I'm hanging out with a bad crowd? How sweet."

"I'm not worried about 'you'. I'm concerned that somehow the activities of one of my teammates will reflect badly on me and the team as a whole."

Blake felt an ear twitch in annoyance. Granted, their team had only recently been formed, but the fact that Weiss felt the need to reference herself as a seperate entity? And she referred to herself first?

"Come on, it's the first weekend of the school year. Lighten up, it's not like we've been given anything long term yet. At best, we've got..two or three bits of homework, easily done in fifteen minutes."

"Well, I see where Ruby gets her work ethic from."

Ruby made an indignant noise at that. "Hey, I've been working and you 'know' it! You brought me 'coffee'! 'Twice'!"

That made Weiss blanch, Yang chuckle, and Blake internally clap. Perfect timing, excellent derailment of the Schnee Disciplinary Board. Granted, this wasn't the end of the topic yet, but that probably closed it for the day, and it was already grating on Blake's nerves..probably because she had a short fuse when it came to people thinking the worst of others right off the bat.

She felt herself tuning out whatever other conversations sprung up, just took the occasional subtle glance at Yang while letting her brain organize what she knew of her. The blond seemed pretty relaxed, which in itself confirmed that she wasn't in any trouble. She certainly enjoyed fighting. The way she handled those Ursa back at initiation proved that. However, she didn't feel like a fight junkie, not the way she played with those Grimm before they touched her hair. Every fight junkie Blake had ever met acted like they were hollow inside if they had to go extended periods of time without some violence, and when danger came they'd 'immediately' dive into the fray. Yang didn't feel quite that..rabid, for lack of a better word, though admittedly that might be premature to say after only a week of knowing her. The fact that she treated a few strands of hair cut with the same level of impotent rage as someone sexually assaulting her was strange, but might just be an extreme amount of vanity. Her interests..well, as far as Blake knew, it just involved pretty-boys that looked good on posters, anything that involved her sister, jokes that were just as likely to get chuckles as groans, and eventually becoming a huntress. Actually pretty sparse.

So while Ruby started talking about some new movie she'd heard about and was excited to watch, Blake made an admittedly hypocritical decision. Since Yang wasn't saying what she did in her weekly disappearances, Blake would have to find out by following her the next time she left. Hopefully she'd be more forgiving than Blake herself would be if someone invaded her privacy. Seriously, she was curious, Yang wasn't saying anything about it, and Blake might be able to learn where she went without even being spotted. She had about a week to plan out how to tail her new partner, it shouldn't be too difficult.

* * *

Author's note  
So, read, review..and hopefully I'll get a comment or two that's more encouraging than what corrections I need to do.


End file.
